Key Issues in Historical Theory

Herman Paul is Associate Professor of Historical Theory and Historiography at Leiden University, where he directs a research project on ‘The Scholarly Self: Character, Habit, and Virtue in the Humanities, 1860-1930’. His publications include Hayden White: The Historical Imagination (Polity Press, 2011).

"This is currently the best introduction to historical theory available in English – comprehensive, lucid and dealing in original and innovative ways with a range of key problems in the philosophy of history and historical theory. It should be read by any undergraduate studying history and will be read with great benefit by many Masters and PhD students as well as professional historians interested in historical theory. The way Herman Paul combines the problematisation of what the past is with explorations into the political, aesthetic, epistemic, and moral dimensions of historical writing is utterly convincing."Stefan Berger, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany "Key Issues in Historical Theory is one of the most absorbing and accessible history theory books that I have read recently. Paul has written a thoughtful and intelligent work about how we think about, write and read history. One of the strengths of the work, apart from its readability, is the use he makes of interesting examples to illustrate his theoretical argument, thus clearly demonstrating the relevance of theoretical reflection for historians."Claire Norton, St Mary's University, Twickenham, United Kingdom

• List of tables. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1.What is historical theory? 2. What is the past? 3. Relations with the past 4. The material relation: rooted in the past 5. The aesthetic relation: historical narratives 6. The political relation: making history .7 The epistemic relation (i): historical hypotheses 8. The epistemic relation (ii): historical explanations 9. The epistemic relation (iii): truth and plausibility. 10 The moral relation: lessons from the past 11. Relations management: the ethics of historical scholarship Index.